By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Highland Park football has fought through a series of setbacks over the first five games of the 2026 season, falling to 1-4 on the year after a 52-0 non-league loss to Blue Valley Southwest Friday night at Hummer Sports Park.
Highland Park's football team takes the field for Friday's Senior Night game against Blue Valley Southwest. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"Going into this year with all the seniors that we had on our roster from the start we had a lot of hopes, but everything you could think of that can hurt a season, at least the first half of the season, has happened to our team,'' Highland Park coach Jermaine Monroe said.
The Scots suffered a huge blow the second week of the season when they lost returning All-Shawnee County Top 22 pick G'Honi Montgomery for the season with a knee injury, and Highland Park's travails have continued since then.
‘’G'Honi is a huge loss,'' Monroe said. "We base the offense around G'Honi and then we're working from there, but now we have some young guys that need to step up. They are doing great things in practice and now we're calling their number and these are the guys that are going to be the future of the program and I'm looking forward to that.''
And with three straight Meadowlark Conference contests coming up, Monroe is confident his Scots can end the regular season with a bang.
"We knew playing against a team like this that's a real quality opponent is going to prepare us for our games when we get back to our league games, so we're looking forward to those,'' Monroe said.
Blue Valley Southwest entered Friday's game winless after wading through a brutal Eastern Kansas League schedule, but the T-Wolves came out firing on all cylinders, putting the game out of reach with a 32-point first quarter.
Southwest boosted its lead to a commanding 45-0 advantage at halftime and a running clock was used throughout the second half.
Highland Park will travel to Kansas City-Harmon for a Meadowlark Conference contest next Friday.
BLUE VALLEY SOUTHWEST 52, HIGHLAND PARK 0
BV Southwest (1-4) 32 13 7 0 -- 52
Highland Park (1-4) 0 0 0 0 -- 0
BV Southwest -- Luther 3 run (Poggio kick)
BV Southwest -- Luther 7 run (Poggio kick)
BV Southwest -- Thomas 52 pass from Dunn (kick failed)
BV Southwest -- Poggio 39 FG
BV Southwest -- Thomas 47 punt return (Poggio kick)
BV Southwest -- Safety
BV Southwest -- Thomas 10 pass from Dunn (kick failed)
BV Southwest -- Orrick 12 pass from Dunn (Poggio kick)
BV Southwest -- Stiner 13 pass from Bakalar (Poggio kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing -- Blue Valley Southwest: Wedekind 9-64, Barnes 8-41, Luther 7-37. Highland Park: Pollard 3-37, Kingcannon 14-9, Rodriguez-Davila 2-1, Drew 1-(minus)-2.
Passing -- Blue Valley Southwest: Dunn 8-15-0, 123 yards; Bakalar 2-3-0, 15. Highland Park: Kingcannon 4-16-2, 27; Belton 5-7-1, 19.
Receiving -- Blue Valley Southwest: Thomas 4-75, Orrick 2-14, Boerigter 1-27, Winter 1-7, Kenton 1-2. Highland Park: Pollard 5-21, Sullivan 2-25, Drew 2-0.
Punting -- Blue Valley Southwest: Poggio 3-36.3. Highland Park: Kingcannon 4-32.5.
